Tuesday, June 19, 2018

A New "Space Force"? One Of The Dumbest Ideas Since Reagan's "Star Wars" - But NOT Dotard's

So now our Space Boy, traitor tyrant - who loves to rip kids from parents - is all frothy at the mouth over a "Space Force"... Before anyone loses his or her equilibrium let's reference this isn't Captain Bonespur's original idea - but hatched some years ago by my feckless Colorado congress critter, Doug Lamborn
Lamborn is easily the most craven, useless POS to ever grab power in our state. Some may recall that back in 2014 this walking turd wanted to slice Medicaid and food stamps for poor kids in order to feather the nest of the Pentagon and for expansion of already extensive military bases etc. near Colorado Springs. Most recently, the miscreant mutt was almost eliminated from the GOP primary because of flouting Colorado law. To wit, a candidate may get his name on a primary ballot if he manages to get at least 1,000 signatures from likely voters- but these must be residents.

Problem was that Lame brain used a lot of out- of -state folks to garner signatures. A legal case was brought, lawsuit filed, and the Colorado Supreme Court agreed, kicking him off the ballot. However, the slimy little douche took his case to federal court (which we know is stacked with Trumpie appointees) and argued that the residency rule for signature gatherers in Colorado was unconstitutional and "violated" his free speech. The federal judge (Philip Brimmer) agreed and tossed the case out so we're saddled with this shit head again.

Why the hostility? Because Lamborn is a punk and a pawn of the military industrial complex and values his own re-election over any concerns of citizens in his district. I have written him no less than six times over different issues the past 4 years and received not one reply. Being "too busy" doesn't cut it because the little ratfucker doesn't do any work anyway. At least nothing anyone can see, other than pandering to his special interests to keep paying his freight.

Anyway, the whole Space Force idea was originally Lamborn's, hatched in order to grab more money in campaign contributions- from defense contractors who only saw huge dollar signs, with $$$$ pouring in at taxpayer's expense.

For reference, the knuckle dragger GOP House previously approved the creation of a "Space Corps"inside the Air Force. Trump's alleged novel brain fart yesterday at a meeting of the National Space Council (WSJ, 'Trump Calls For A Space Force', today, p. A3) is merely a regurgitation of Lamborn's - though he also called it a "Space Corps". At the time reported (Denver Post, May 14) Lamborn insisted "I don't care what we call it, or what it looks like as long as we make space the priority in the Department of Defense that it deserves to be".

What's really behind this bull crap? Well, the old term - which I still prefer - is "pork barrel spending". In other words, the little scum ball just sees an opportunity for more defense spending — especially for his home state’s economy and specifically here in the Springs. In other words, like most current defense projects - it is all a matter of herding jobs and money to the state.

So we are on the same plane of reality here, let's note this is another one of those "bad ideas" exposed by Matt Miller in his book The Tyranny of Bad Ideas. I.e. god awful, already proven disasters like trickle down tax cuts that keep coming back like bad pennies....or zombies. In this case, no matter what Dotard claims about being "a matter of national security', this is simply Reagan's Star Wars boondoggle in a new guise.

Recall Star Wars, or the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was never proven workable or even remotely feasible. It depended upon incorporating space-based interceptors as well as powerful lasers mounted on satellites to take down Soviet ICBMs. The most devastating exposure of the missile defense con appeared in the May, 1987 issue of Physics Today and was entitled "APS Directed Energy Weapons Study (Executive Summary)". Versions of it subsequently appeared in other journals, including the Reviews Of Modern Physics, e.g.

https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract/10.1103/RevModPhys.59.S1
The study basically took apart the SDI piece by piece with no fewer than 26 major deficiencies identified on everything from the weaknesses of the proposed lasers to shoot down the incoming missiles (too weak by several orders of magnitude) to the problem of identifying the targets "at sub-micro-radian resolution" in the boost phase to "lack of precision tracking via active sensor systems" and the ease with which any missile interceptor design can easily be thwarted, say by use of dispersal of million of reflecting, metallic decoys.

There is absolutely NO assurance, zero, that anything different will be achieved with this Space Force codswallop. Indeed as reported (WSJ. ibid.): "The move by Trump was despite strong objections by senior civilian and uniformed military leaders."

The piece also went on to note "the step apparently took even some of Mr. Trump's staunchest congressional supporters by surprise." This, of course, is simply another reason to clean house and expunge all these GOP rats by November. The best way to do that? Let the Dems' political ad makers incorporate the just released audio of the crying kids (at the assorted border detention centers) into each ad released in the fall - so voters don't forget the perfidy going on now. What many will likely hear and see more and more of is how we "need" a Space Force to "protect our satellites" from being shot down, say by the Chinese or Russkies. But let's get real here: satellites fly in predictable orbits , and so will always be fairly easy to target - if a bad actor wants to. But launching a typical weather or defense satellite is expensive enough without adding hundreds of pounds more weight for defenses. And there's no assurance those defenses, say built in excimer lasers, will work. A more practical solution, as opposed to mounting "ray guns" on satellites, would be to employ greater redundancy in the satellites we do put up. The military, to keep costs under control, could also deploy backup systems on unmanned aerial vehicles, and integrating them into a fraction of the satellite fleet.

In the meantime, those of us who can, need to keep exposing this "Space Force/ Space Corps" jive for the bollocks it is. As well as dangerous bollocks, given any militarization of space is not something we want to entertain. Especially from the likes of Doug Lamborn and Captain Bonespurs!

About Me

Specialized in space physics and solar physics, developed first astronomy curriculum for Caribbean secondary schools, has written thirteen books - the most recent:Fundamentals of Solar Physics. Also: Modern Physics: Notes, Problems and Solutions;:'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God', Astronomy & Astrophysics: Notes, Problems and Solutions', 'Physics Notes for Advanced Level&#39, Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space, Selected Analyses in Solar Flare Plasma Dynamics; and 'A History of Caribbean Secondary School Astronomy'. It details the background to my development and implementation of the first ever astronomy curriculum for secondary schools in the Caribbean.